Category: Serial Fiction

Anatoli Palazzo sat behind his desk leafing through a newspaper. He scanned the pages through the glasses that settled on the thin bridge of his nose. He took a gulp from his ‘World’s Greatest Boss’ mug and grimaced.

“Jenny?” he called out the door of his office.

A young girl poked her head in the door, “Yes, Mr. Palazzo?”

“Jenny,” Toli asked, “When was this coffee made?”

“It’s leftover from last night,” Jenny replied, “I ran it back through the maker to get it warm.”

A small vessel floated between the debris tumbling through the Kuiper Belt. It’s sole occupant was meticulously turning a dial on a console with spindly fingers. A sound like a tenor bell being struck at a plodding tempo swelled through the cabin. The pilot removed his fingers from the dial and pressed one of a myriad of blinking buttons.

Jimmy Jam was 6. He was the coolest kid in town and everyone knew it. Everyone. The mailman, the firemen, and even the man at the ice cream store- in addition to all the neighbors. If Jimmy Jam met someone who didn’t know he was the coolest kid in town, he’d tell them. Then they’d know.

He had a leather motorcycle jacket that his favorite uncle had given him before he was born, because his uncle was a wizard, he already knew how cool Jimmy would be.